Weathering Rolling Stock, a Continous thread

[TLOC]

Applying the base grime coat to the underside of the cover hoppers

you can see the original and the grimed one closest to the camera

 

[CambriaArea51]

As for Tom's process for weathering, I basically do the same just slightly different as I use the alcohol in the airbrush and powerwash the trucks. Then airbrush the wheels and trucks with rust. This is just the base coat, it'll get some earth and grimy black.

 

[CambriaArea51]

Back to the tank cars, these will be placarded for diesel fuel. While the trucks dry the safety striping gets added and the chemtrec decal that missing.

 

[Espeefan]

That de

Never had any problems with paint that you guys describe. Very few times I've thinned paint. Must be the airbrush.

That depends on two things:

• Your airbrush and it's needle/nozzle size.
• What you're spraying.

 

[CambriaArea51]

That de

That depends on two things:

• Your airbrush and it's needle/nozzle size.
• What you're spraying.

Well I use a small tip for weathering and acrylic paint most of the time. I don't use enamel much anymore because it's too hard to find, but never thinned that either. So it must be the airbrush and compressor.

 

[TLOC]

I believe what you are seeing with this minor paint discussion is that there is no 100% right way to do things.

I take Alan’s (Espeefan) experiences, Chris’s (smudge617) beginner issues and Tom’s (cambriaarea51) explanation and demonstration pictures to heart. This has all been helpful to me and I hope to the viewers that check in.

I had a great mentor back in the 70’s teaching me how to spray paint brass steam and diesels with the available products back then. Today’s modern methods and different paints was a tough learning curve for me when I got back into air brushing. The YouTube content providers are wonderful but there are so many and often not real competent in explaining their methods, it became very confusing.

I am a note taker and the more YT content on weathering I watched the more messed up I became. Buy this spray brush, use these paints, thin with this or thin with that, make your own…blah, it was too much.

Do I know the needles sizes in my airbrushes? Well, not really. I did but now I use consistently 3 air brushes. Yes the needles sizes are different but I’d have to check my notes to tell you what is what. I have learned one is for more fine detailed work, another is for more broad based areas and the 3rd airbrush, a single action is used only for clear coats.

A few years ago I found Boomer Diorama on YT. Not for his painting or weathering info but for the creation of his shelf layout. But then his weathering techniques hooked me and his airbrush usage intrigued me. He has a bunch of how to weather on his YT and you can go to just them and skip the shelf layout building videos.

What I am trying to write is this. Don’t get hung up on the equipment or paints. As evident by what has happened over the year of this thread, we all do it a bit differently. But, we are doing it…that is the point.

Just start weathering, use what you have. Thin it or not, experiment because conditions for each of us are so different. If it sputters out of the airbrush DESCRIBE AND ASK, if it orange peels, if it won’t come out of the brush, ASK the Question.

Use what has happened in the now 44 pages here as a guide to your weathering journey. CambriaArea51 has described right above this entry the way he does his truck frames. He power washes and spray paints them. I described my method. I use a tooth brush and scrub. I hand brush 90/95% of the truck frames. Neither method is the only way or the right way. But our ways work for us. That’s the point again, try it and see what works for you. Write down what works and doesn’t for you. Don’t rush, make the journey enjoyable but there will be some frustrations thrown in.

Don’t buy cheap but you don’t need top of the line either. I buy Tamiya Arcylics for my base coats, I buy Vallejo Air, Model Color and Panzer Aces series of paints and create my own washes from them. My thinners for Tamiya are the Isopropyl Alcohol but I also have the Tamiya thinner if I want to use it. I do not air brush the Vallejo paints any longer, only Tamiya. My thinner for Vallejo washes is water. It works for me. I used a Porter-Cable compressor from HomeDepot. My airbrushes are Badger but others like Iwata and Paasche are great.

Alan described a page back about some of the paint products he uses. I have not used a couple but now that he described them my next trip to the LHS might contain a couple more bottles. It’s a learning process

I am having fun especially since I stopped over thinking it.

 

[Smudge617]

I believe what you are seeing with this minor paint discussion is that there is no 100% right way to do things.

I take Alan’s (Espeefan) experiences, Chris’s (smudge617) beginner issues and Tom’s (cambriaarea51) explanation and demonstration pictures to heart. This has all been helpful to me and I hope to the viewers that check in.

I had a great mentor back in the 70’s teaching me how to spray paint brass steam and diesels with the available products back then. Today’s modern methods and different paints was a tough learning curve for me when I got back into air brushing. The YouTube content providers are wonderful but there are so many and often not real competent in explaining their methods, it became very confusing.

I am a note taker and the more YT content on weathering I watched the more messed up I became. Buy this spray brush, use these paints, thin with this or thin with that, make your own…blah, it was too much.

Do I know the needles sizes in my airbrushes? Well, not really. I did but now I use consistently 3 air brushes. Yes the needles sizes are different but I’d have to check my notes to tell you what is what. I have learned one is for more fine detailed work, another is for more broad based areas and the 3rd airbrush, a single action is used only for clear coats.

A few years ago I found Boomer Diorama on YT. Not for his painting or weathering info but for the creation of his shelf layout. But then his weathering techniques hooked me and his airbrush usage intrigued me. He has a bunch of how to weather on his YT and you can go to just them and skip the shelf layout building videos.

What I am trying to write is this. Don’t get hung up on the equipment or paints. As evident by what has happened over the year of this thread, we all do it a bit differently. But, we are doing it…that is the point.

Just start weathering, use what you have. Thin it or not, experiment because conditions for each of us are so different. If it sputters out of the airbrush DESCRIBE AND ASK, if it orange peels, if it won’t come out of the brush, ASK the Question.

Use what has happened in the now 44 pages here as a guide to your weathering journey. CambriaArea51 has described right above this entry the way he does his truck frames. He power washes and spray paints them. I described my method. I use a tooth brush and scrub. I hand brush 90/95% of the truck frames. Neither method is the only way or the right way. But our ways work for us. That’s the point again, try it and see what works for you. Write down what works and doesn’t for you. Don’t rush, make the journey enjoyable but there will be some frustrations thrown in.

Don’t buy cheap but you don’t need top of the line either. I buy Tamiya Arcylics for my base coats, I buy Vallejo Air, Model Color and Panzer Aces series of paints and create my own washes from them. My thinners for Tamiya are the Isopropyl Alcohol but I also have the Tamiya thinner if I want to use it. I do not air brush the Vallejo paints any longer, only Tamiya. My thinner for Vallejo washes is water. It works for me. I used a Porter-Cable compressor from HomeDepot. My airbrushes are Badger but others like Iwata and Paasche are great.

Alan described a page back about some of the paint products he uses. I have not used a couple but now that he described them my next trip to the LHS might contain a couple more bottles. It’s a learning process

I am having fun especially since I stopped over thinking it.

Thank's Tom, heartily agree with your sentiments.

I'm learning and asking some of the dumber questions and probably will be for some time to come, (so thank's for everyone's patience}, as you say it's a learning curve, and thank's to this thread and the members who post their work and explain their methods here, make that learning curve far more enjoyable than it otherwise would be.

 

[CambriaArea51]

Thank's Tom, heartily agree with your sentiments.

I'm learning and asking some of the dumber questions and probably will be for some time to come, (so thank's for everyone's patience}, as you say it's a learning curve, and thank's to this thread and the members who post their work and explain their methods here, make that learning curve far more enjoyable than it otherwise would be.

Yep, finds what works for you. Take a little or a lot from everyone and do what you feel comfortable with. I never used powders till a couple of years ago, so I'm still learning.

Update on the tank cars. Some earth applied and grimy black to fade. First one is pre grimy black.

 

[Smudge617]

Yep, finds what works for you. Take a little or a lot from everyone and do what you feel comfortable with. I never used powders till a couple of years ago, so I'm still learning.

Update on the tank cars. Some earth applied and grimy black to fade. First one is pre grimy black.View attachment 161887View attachment 161888View attachment 161889

It's always interesting to see how each person goes about doing similar projects, as you said you take a little or a lot and find what works for you.

 

[TLOC]

Started on streaking the Covered Hoppers.

For me this is a process. In this case I am using 71.040 Vallejo Air thinned 10 drops water to 10 drops Burnt Umber

I take the car and liberally brush on clean water. Then cover each panel with the thinned Burnt Umber mix. I will move the Burnt Umber around IF I don’t like the flow down the car. Let dry and repeat.

Did it again but then added a clean car for you to note the contrast.

Can this be done with an Air Brush? Absolutely and for the third car I may be doing that. But for the first 2 cars, it’s this way. Why hand brush when I could quickly air spray?
1. I am not in a hurry
2. hand brushing is more random IMO
3. I enjoy doing it this way

Just building up layers

Here I added random dots and cuts of straight Burnt Umber #70.041. This is the base of an upcoming rust streak. I will take an oil based paint and place a dot inside these marks. Then with a dampen brush of odorless mineral spirits I will pull down on the oil dot creating a streak.

Like I said this is a process for me. I have not touched the roof other than when I clear Matt coated the car in the beginning.

4 sides done only 2 with the dots. Not all cars weather the same…

Now I rest and let these dry under cover, probably for another 3-4 hours. I miss my dehydrator. On to pulp cars…

 

[TLOC]

Yep, finds what works for you. Take a little or a lot from everyone and do what you feel comfortable with. I never used powders till a couple of years ago, so I'm still learning.

Update on the tank cars. Some earth applied and grimy black to fade. First one is pre grimy black.View attachment 161887View attachment 161888View attachment 161889

Enough fade to know the car is in use. Looks good

 

[CambriaArea51]

It's always interesting to see how each person goes about doing similar projects, as you said you take a little or a lot and find what works for you.

I'm still learning. Dan has a new video out on a Chessie hopper that is for phosphate. Learned some more techniques.

 

[CambriaArea51]

Enough fade to know the car is in use. Looks good

Thanks. Your grain car is nicely faded and dirty, can't wait for the rust streak effect.

 

[TLOC]

I'm still learning. Dan has a new video out on a Chessie hopper that is for phosphate. Learned some more techniques.

I watched this this morning and commented. This is one of if not his best video. Excellent work

 

[TLOC]

Thanks. Your grain car is nicely faded and dirty, can't wait for the rust streak effect.

I will work on it tomorrow. The plan was for after dinner but I have the chills and I don’t want to be sick again. So I am relaxing

 

[Espeefan]

It's true, there's no "right way to do it" as long as you get the results you want. Weathering is highly subjective, and a matter of taste. I usually thin my paints with a few exceptions. There are some acrylics that don't need thinning: Badger's Modelflex (used it, don't care for it), Model Air (though I do like to use a few drops of their "Flow Improver") and Some Tamiya paints, though I prefer to thin them. My issue is that I learned on solvent-based systems that had to be thinned, and I tend toward fine needles. .35 mm is a big needle for me, and my most sophisticated airbrush has a .18 mm needle. Watercolors and inks only when I'm using that one! It'll put eyebrows on your HO scale figures. I have one airbrush with a .5 mm needle that I use for White paint only. White paint has a very coarse pigment grind. Acrylics dry much faster than solvent based paints and that was a tough transition for me. I used to teach airbrushing and weathering some years back, and my lead in was "This is what works for me. It isn't necessarily the only way!" One of the ways I drove this home was to put up a pic of a model I'd weathered and ask for input on what I did wrong. This was the model:

After half a dozen comments or so about what I did wrong I'd put up the photo of the real one and listen to the silence. This is all done with the Iwata watercolors and was done before I started using Pan Pastels. Today I'd add some pastels for texture. Texture is important for realism!

 

[TLOC]

It's true, there's no "right way to do it" as long as you get the results you want. Weathering is highly subjective, and a matter of taste. I usually thin my paints with a few exceptions. There are some acrylics that don't need thinning: Badger's Modelflex (used it, don't care for it), Model Air (though I do like to use a few drops of their "Flow Improver") and Some Tamiya paints, though I prefer to thin them. My issue is that I learned on solvent-based systems that had to be thinned, and I tend toward fine needles. .35 mm is a big needle for me, and my most sophisticated airbrush has a .18 mm needle. Watercolors and inks only when I'm using that one! It'll put eyebrows on your HO scale figures. I have one airbrush with a .5 mm needle that I use for White paint only. White paint has a very coarse pigment grind. Acrylics dry much faster than solvent based paints and that was a tough transition for me. I used to teach airbrushing and weathering some years back, and my lead in was "This is what works for me. It isn't necessarily the only way!" One of the ways I drove this home was to put up a pic of a model I'd weathered and ask for input on what I did wrong. This was the model:
View attachment 161917
View attachment 161918

After half a dozen comments or so about what I did wrong I'd put up the photo of the real one and listen to the silence. This is all done with the Iwata watercolors and was done before I started using Pan Pastels. Today I'd add some pastels for texture. Texture is important for realism!

Wow, Alan that is beautiful.

Thanks for the comments. I have tried the Badger paints and others but I do seem to keep comng back to the Tamiya Arcylics.

 

[migalyto]

Tom,

Thanks for starting this thread. It's a wealth of knowledge. I have finally made it through all 45 pages, but probably need to go back through again and take notes,

I will probably have a million questions.

1) I guess the most burning one would be what would someone that has no experience, but want to start slow need to get started? Seems a lot of you are using different supplies to achieve similar results.
2) Where are you getting your supplies?

 

[TLOC]

Tom,

Thanks for starting this thread. It's a wealth of knowledge. I have finally made it through all 45 pages, but probably need to go back through again and take notes,

I will probably have a million questions.

1) I guess the most burning one would be what would someone that has no experience, but want to start slow need to get started? Seems a lot of you are using different supplies to achieve similar results.
2) Where are you getting your supplies?

Hi.

Start slow, a great idea. But with a purpose.

I started weathering after being gone 10-15 years using Pan Pastels after reading about them and watching content providers on YouTube. I purchased 6 earth colors. Purchased from dickblick.com and literally played with them on old rail cars that would never see the layout again before I tried a good car. They are easily correctable until sealed.

But, if I had to start over. I would start with buying Monroe Models (used to be AIM) powders instead of Pan Pastels. Buy some good but not expensive brushes including a couple fan brushes. Rattle cans of clear coats of matte and gloss finishes. Then practice and practice using a prototype picture of a car I am trying to replicate on the old practice cars.

If comfy, take something off the layout and work your newly practiced magic.

Ready to move up? I would recommend watching 2 content providers on You Tube. #1 is Boomer Diorama. He demonstrates many things on building his shelf layout. But he has many weathering videos, check those out in order, they are numbered. The other content provider I’d recommend is DansRailroad2011. He is a talker and his videos are not short but he is a talent and not only thoroughly demonstrated the techniques but really explains what he is doing and why.

Ready to go beyond powders? A good compressor for air brushing IMO is crucial. I have a Porter-Gamble one from HomeDepot. They call it a pancake one. It has workEd for me for maybe 15 years now, it’s not quiet but I never run out of air. I purchased it as a bundle as it had nail guns with it.

Airbrush. Do not buy the $15 dollar one from Amazon. I like Badgers and I like dual action brushes. Cambria Area51 and EspeeFan have contributed many ideas, techniques and tips along with others to this thread. We use airbrushes but different brands. They I hope will chime in as I wish anyone else to. I think $100 is a reasonable cost for a good airbrush to start. Smudge617 just went through buying an airbrush and compressor. He needed a quiet compressor due to his neighbors. He’ll comment…

Paints. For my base coating I use Tamiya Aryclics. Until 2023, I had purchased 90% of my Tamiya from scalehobbyist.com. Until this year the shipped price of their paints and supplies was the best value with exceptional shipping. I am re-evaluating this. I have 2 local hobby shops I recently purchased from. Madison Hobby Stop 4 miles from the house and 70 miles away, Hiawatha Hobbies. I am a price shopper when it comes to online purchases. I check the bottle price, taxes if any and the shipping costs. I have issues with Hobby Lobby and rarely have I gone in there. I like Michael’s locally but online I tend to buy from Dickblick.com.

The thinner I use with Tamiya is now 99% Isopropyl Alcohol. I have used the Tamiya thinner.

Brushes. I ask for paint brushes at Christmas from my family, (the son). I give him the Amazon info. These are my main brushes

I also have brush sets from Michael’s, nothing fancy or expensive. But you will need 3/8 to 1/2” wide flat brushes. Bigger sizes to blend powders. Cheap works for me. I have a couple of eacjph of these

I for the most part now create my own weathering washes. I hope others will chime in. I use Vallejo Air, Model Colors and Panzer Aces lines of paints. These paints are thinned with tap water to create my washes. Everyone has a method.

Again I was buying Vallejo paints online from Scalehobbist.com.

This is just a tip of the iceberg. BUT do not feel intimidated. Just practice and that fear factor goes away. Powders are correctable as are Pan Pastels. Pan Pastels IMO are a bit tougher to control as depending on the clear coat being used they may wash away. Monroe Powders are a bit tougher IMO.

Ask questions here or start a thread. If it says weathering on it you definitely will get viewers.

 

[wombat457]

Airbrush

Air brushes are not quiet, well the compressor component of air brushing anyway. I have an Iwata Twin Action Gravity Fed Airbrush and Compressor they are great for me.

The one thing I think I would strongly recommend though is to buy a Gravity Fed Gun. They seem to be more reliable with less waste and spray better.